Packaging and method for packaging

ABSTRACT

A package ( 11 ) for a generally block-shaped food product comprises a sheet ( 10 ) of foldable material. The sheet has an inner portion ( 16 ) for enclosing the product and a frame-shaped sealing portion ( 18 ) surrounding the inner portion for sealing the package. Two side portions ( 24, 26 ) of the sealing portion abut one another to form a longitudinal seal and opposing end portions ( 20, 22 ) of the sealing portion abut each other to form seals along respective ends. A flap ( 28 ) is provided along one side of the sheet adjacent an outer edge of the respective side portion, and an outer edge region ( 32 ) of the other side of the sheet is folded inwardly to form a tab ( 36 ), the inner and outer surfaces of the flap portion and the tab are accessible.

TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to packaging, and in particular to improved packaging for packaging generally block-shaped food products. The present invention is also directed to a method of packaging such food products.

BACKGROUND TO THE INVENTION

It is known to package generally block-shaped food products, such as chocolate bars and other snack type confectionery products, in a wrapper that is fabricated from a material that is substantially gas and moisture impervious, in order to maintain the freshness of the product.

Such known wrappers comprise a sheet of flat, foldable material. The sheet is often rectangular and has an inner surface directed to the food product and an outer surface. The outer surface may be printed on or otherwise be provided with information for the consumer. An adhesive or a pressure sealable and re-sealable coating is applied to the inner surface of the sheet. The sheet is folded about the product so that an inner portion encloses the top, bottom, side and end surfaces of the product. The sheet is sufficiently long that it extends beyond the front and rear surfaces of the product and opposing inner surfaces of the sheet are brought into contact to form seals along the front and rear edges of the package. The inner surfaces of side portions of the sheet are also brought into contact to form a fin seal along the length of the package.

The known package forms a fully sealed package for the product, which is substantially gas and moisture impervious. However, because the material from which the sheet is made is quite tough, the known package can be difficult to open.

To address this problem, it has been proposed in GB 1, 107, 200 A to provided tabs along each of the sides of the sheet by folding the side edges of the sheet inwardly and sealing them in position. When the package is formed, the tabs project from an outer edge of the longitudinal fin seal. The inner and outer surfaces of the tabs are accessible by a consumer, who can grasp the tabs and pull them apart to open the package by pealing apart the longitudinal fin seal. However, it has been found that the tabs, which are of double thickness when compared to the remainder of the sheet, tend to jam when used in conventional packaging machinery.

An alternative proposal to the problem of opening the known packaging has been proposed in EP 1 288 139 A1. In this arrangement, the adhesive or pressure sealable and re-sealable coating is only applied to the inner surface in a frame-shape sealing portion surrounding the inner portion. The frame-shaped sealing portion has opposing end portions and opposing side portions. The sheet is also provided with a flap adjacent each of the side portions. In the finished packaging, the flaps project from an outer edge of the longitudinal fin seal. Both the inner and outer surfaces of the flaps are accessible such that they can be grasped by a consumer and pulled apart to open the package in a similar manner to the tabs. Because the flaps are the same thickness as the remainder of the sheet, this arrangement does not tend to jam in conventional packaging machinery. However, the flaps have been found to be not entirely satisfactory to consumers as a means of opening of the packaging.

It is an object of the invention to provide an improved packaging for a generally block-shaped product which overcomes or at least mitigates the above problems.

It is a particular object of the invention to provide a package for a generally block-shaped product which is conveniently opened and which can be applied to the product using conventional packaging machinery.

It is a further object of the invention to provide a method of packaging a generally block-shaped food product.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In accordance with a first aspect of the invention, there is provided a package for packaging a generally block-shaped food product, the package comprising a sheet of foldable packing material having an inner surface and an outer surface, the sheet having an inner portion for enclosing the top, bottom, side, and end surfaces of the product, a frame-shaped sealing portion enclosing the inner portion for sealing the package and comprising opposing end portions and opposing side portions, the sheet being folded around the product such that the inner portion encloses the block-shaped product with the inner surface of the sheet directed towards the product, the inner surfaces of the two side portions of the frame-shaped sealing portion abutting one another to form a longitudinal seal, and opposing inner surface regions of the end portions of the frame-shaped sealing portions abutting each other to form seals along respective ends, in which, a flap portion is provided along one side of the sheet adjacent an outer edge of the respective side portion of the frame-shaped sealing portion, and an outer edge region of the other side of the sheet is folded inwardly to form a tab, the inner and outer surfaces of the flap portion and the tab being accessible.

The provision of a tab along one side edge of the packaging in combination with a flap along the other side edge has been found to provide a particularly convenient means for opening the package. Rather surprisingly, it has also been found that having a tab along one side of the sheet only does not result the sheet becoming jammed when used with conventional packaging machinery to form the package.

The outer edge region of the other side of the sheet may be sealed to an opposing region of the sheet, inner face to inner face, to hold the tab in position.

The seals may be formed by means of a sealing composition applied to the inner surface of the sheet within the sealing portion.

The sealing composition may also be applied to the inner surface of the outer edge region of the other side of the sheet. In which case, the sealing composition may be applied to the inner surface of the sheet on the other side, from the respective side portion substantially up to the side edge of the sheet.

In one embodiment, no sealing composition is applied to the inner surface of the flap.

The tab may be positioned adjacent an outer edge of the longitudinal seal or it may be spaced from the outer edge of the longitudinal seal by a flap region.

In one embodiment no sealing composition is applied to the inner surface of the inner portion.

In an alternative embodiment, at least some of the seals are formed by welding.

In accordance with a second aspect of the invention, there is provided a method of packing a generally block-shaped food product by means of a package in accordance with the first aspect, the method comprising:

-   -   a. positioning the food product on the inner surface of the         sheet in the inner portion;     -   b. folding the sheet around the product so that the product is         enclosed by the inner portion of the sheet and the inner         surfaces of the side portions of the seal portion are brought         into abutment;     -   c. forming the longitudinal seal along the abutting area;     -   d. bringing opposing inner surfaces of the end portions of the         sealing portion into abutment;     -   e. forming end seals in the abutting areas.

The method may comprise folding the longitudinal seal, the tab and flap around a fold line at the border of the inner portion and one of the side portions.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

An embodiment of the invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a schematic plan view of the inner surface of a sheet for forming a package in accordance with the invention;

FIG. 2 shows the sheet of FIG. 1, which one side edge folded over to form a tab;

FIG. 3 is a schematic lateral cross section view through a package in accordance with the invention, shown on an enlarged scale;

FIG. 4 is a schematic perspective view of a finished package in accordance with the invention;

FIGS. 5 and 6 are views similar to those of FIGS. 1 and 2 but showing an alternative embodiment of a sheet for forming a package in accordance with the invention.

FIG. 1 shows schematically a flat sheet 10 of foldable material for forming a package 11 in accordance with the invention. The sheet can be made of any foldable material suitable for packaging food products. Preferably, the material is substantially moisture and gas impervious. For example, the sheet may be made of a paper based material, flexible films, one or more polymers, or a metallic foil. The sheet may also be a laminated sheet comprising layers of different materials, including any those mentioned above in any suitable combination. In one embodiment, the sheet comprises an orientated polypropylene (OPP) laminate. The sheet may be made from any of the materials discussed in the prior art patent applications discussed above, details of which are hereby incorporated by reference.

The sheet 10 has an inner surface 12 (shown in FIGS. 1 and 2) and an outer surface 14. The sheet has an inner portion 16 for enclosing the top, bottom, side, and end surfaces of a block-shaped food product. The food product may be a confectionery product and in particular a snack type confectionery product such as a chocolate bar.

Surrounding the inner portion 16 is a frame-shaped sealing portion 18 (indicated with cross hatching in FIGS. 1 and 2). The frame-shaped sealing portion is coated on the inner surface of the sheet with a sealing composition that enables a seal to be formed when opposing inner surface regions of the sealing portion 18 are contacted together during fabrication of the package. The composition may be a pressure sensitive coating which forms a seal upon the application of moderate pressure without the need to apply additional heat. The coating may be a sealable and re-sealable wax-like composition. Such a composition can be pealed apart to open the packaging but will re-seal if the surfaces are brought back into contact to re-close the package. The seal formed when the package is re-closed need not be as strong as the initial seal but will be sufficient to prevent the opposing surfaces from falling apart without the application of at least a minimal force to separate them. The sealing composition could, for example, be a pressure sensitive cold-seal adhesive or a self-adhesive thermoplastic material.

Alternatively, the sealing composition may be a temperature sensitive adhesive. The sealing composition may be any of those disclosed in the prior art patent applications discussed above, details of which are also hereby incorporated by reference.

In a further alternative embodiment, the longitudinal and/or the end seals may be welded without a sealing composition. Welding can be carried by any suitable means and may involve heating the material in the sealing portion under pressure so that the opposing surfaces melt and fuse together to form a welded seam. For example, the end seals may be welded seals and the longitudinal seal may be formed by means of a peelable and re-sealable composition applied to the material.

The frame-shaped sealing portion has a two opposing end portions 20, 22 and two opposing side portions 24, 26. When being applied to a food product, the sheet will be fed into a packaging machine in the direction of arrow A in FIG. 1. With reference to the direction of feed, the end portion 20 can be considered a front end portion and the end portion 22 can be considered a rear end portion. The corresponding ends of the product may also be considered as a front and rear end respectively. For the sake of convenience, the terms “front” and “rear” and “side” are used herein in relation to the direction of feed but should not be regarded as limiting.

The front and rear portions 20, 22 extend from respective front and rear edges of the inner portion 16 to the front and rear edges of the sheet 10 itself. Along one side of the sheet (the left as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2) the sheet extends beyond the outer edge of the side portion 26 to form a flap 28 on which no sealing composition is applied.

The sheet 10 also extends laterally outwardly from the outer edge (indicated by dashed line 30) of the other side portion 24 by a distance that is greater than the width of the flap 28. On this side of the sheet, the sealing composition is applied to the inner surface right up to the side edge of the sheet itself. An outer edge region 32 of the sheet is folded inwardly about line 34 to form a tab 36, as shown in FIG. 2. The inner surface of the outer edge region 32 is brought into contact with the inner surface of an opposing region of the sheet 10 to form a seal to hold the tab 36 in position. With the tab 36 formed, the sealing composition applied to the inner surface of the side portion 24 of the frame-shaped sealing portion is still exposed between the inner edge 38 of the tab 36 and the inner portion 16. In this embodiment, the tab 36 is wider than the flap 28 but this need not be the case and the flap 28 and tab 36 could be the same width or the flap 28 could be wider than the tab 36.

To form the package 12, the food product is positioned substantially centrally within the inner portion 16 so as to contact the inner surface of the sheet. The sheet 10 is then folded around the food product so that the inner surfaces of the side portions 24, 26 contact one another as shown in FIG. 3. A seal 40 is then formed between the two side portions, typically by the application of a moderate pressure. With the sheet folded about the food product, the front and rear portions 20, 22 of the sealing portion over hang the front and rear ends of the product respectively and are folded back over themselves so that opposing regions of the inner surface of the front and rear portions are in contact. Front 42 and rear 44 seals are formed, typically by the application of a moderate pressure to the front and rear sealing portions.

The product is now sealed inside the package 12 by virtue of the front 42, rear 44 and longitudinal 40 seals. As shown in FIG. 3, the flap 28 and tab 36 project outwardly beyond the outer edge of the longitudinal seal 40. Because no sealing composition is applied to the flap 28 or the outer surface of the tab 36, the two remain separated so that a consumer can grasp them and pull them apart to open the package.

For neatness, the longitudinal seal 40, the flap 28 and the tab 36 are folded over to one side or the other so as to lie generally parallel to the surface of the product as illustrated in FIG. 4. The longitudinal seal, flap and tab may be folded about a fold line at the border of the inner portion and one of the side portions so that either tab 36 or the flap 28 is uppermost.

To further assist a consumer in opening the package, an embossed pattern may be applied to all or part of the tab 36 and/or the flap 28.

The package 12 is formed in a form-fill-seal (FFS) packaging machine and the sheet 10 is preferably provided as part of a continuous roll of sheets (roll-fed) fed into the machine in the direction of arrow A. The material is folded about each product in turn so that opposing longitudinal edge regions of the material are brought into contact and bonded together to form the longitudinal seam, opposing regions of the material at either end of the product are brought into contact and bonded to form the transverse end seams and the material is cut to separate the package from the remainder of the film.

Where a sealing composition is used to form the seals, it may be pre-applied to the sheets or roll or it may be applied during formation of the package. The tab 36 may also be pre-formed before the sheets are wound on to the roll or it may be formed as part of the package formation process. Typically, the tab 36 will be formed before the sheet is folded around the food product but it can be formed at any stage in the packaging process. The tab 36 may be formed by welding the opposing regions of the sheet together.

In an alternative embodiment illustrated in FIGS. 5 and 6, the sealing composition is not applied continuously from the side portion 26 to the outer edge of the sheet 10. Rather there is gap between the outer edge 30 of the side portion 26 and an area 46 of sealing composition applied to the inner surface of the sheet to form the tab 36. In this case, when the outer edge region 32 of the sheet is folded inwardly to form the tab 36, the inner end 38 of the tab 36 is spaced from the outer edge of the side portion 26. Thus, in the completed package 12, a small flap portion 48 is formed between the outer edge of longitudinal seal 40 and the tab 36.

Various changes and modifications may be made to the above described package without departing from the scope of the present invention as defined in the claims. For example, in the embodiments illustrated, the sheet 10 is rectangular and is suitable for packaging a rectangular block-shaped food product. However, the shape and dimensions of the sheet 10 can be varied to suit the shape and dimensions of the product which could be a square generally block-shaped product, for example. 

1. A package for packaging a generally block-shaped food product, the package comprising a sheet of foldable packing material having an inner surface and an outer surface, the sheet having an inner portion for enclosing the top, bottom, side and end surfaces of the product, a frame-shaped sealing portion enclosing the inner portion for sealing the package and comprising opposing end portions and opposing side portions, the sheet being folded around the product such that the inner portion encloses the block-shaped product with the inner surface of the sheet directed towards the product, the inner surfaces of the two side portions of the frame-shaped sealing portion abutting one another to form a longitudinal seal, and opposing inner surface regions of the ends portions of the framed-shaped sealing portion abutting each other to form seals along respective ends, in which, a flap portion is provided along one side of the sheet adjacent an outer edge of the respective side portion, and an outer edge region of the other side of the sheet is folded inwardly to form a tab, the inner and outer surfaces of the flap portion and the tab being accessible.
 2. A package as claimed in claim 1, in which the outer edge region of the other side of the sheet is sealed to an opposing region of the sheet, inner face to inner face, to hold the tab in position.
 3. A package as claimed in claim 1, in which the seals are formed by means of a sealing composition applied to the inner surface of the sheet within the sealing portion.
 4. A package as claimed in claim 3, in which the sealing composition is also applied to the inner surface of the outer edge region of the other side of the sheet.
 5. A package as claim in claim 4, in which the sealing composition is applied to the inner surface of the sheet on the other side, from the side portion substantially up to the side edge of the sheet.
 6. A package as claimed in claim 1, in which no sealing composition is applied to the inner surface of the flap portion.
 7. A package as claimed in claim 1, in which no sealing composition is applied to the inner surface of the inner portion.
 8. A package as claimed in claim 1, in which the tab is adjacent an outer edge of the respective side portion.
 9. A package as claimed in claim 1, in which the tab is spaced from an outer edge of the respective side portion by a flap region.
 10. (canceled)
 11. A method of packaging a generally block-shaped food product by means of a package as claimed in claim 1, the method comprising: a. positioning the food product on the inner surface of the sheet in the inner portion; b. folding the sheet around the product so that the product is enclosed by the inner portion of the sheet and the inner surfaces of the side portions of the seal portion are brought into abutment; c. forming the longitudinal seal along the abutting area; d. bringing opposing inner surfaces to the end portions of the sealing portion into abutment; e. forming end seals in the abutting areas.
 12. A method as claimed in claim 11, the method comprising folding the longitudinal seal, the tab and the flap portion around a fold line at a border of the inner portion and one of the side portions.
 13. (canceled) 